Sabzalian wins Williams Fellowship

Sabzalian wins Williams Fellowship

CSWS faculty affiliate Leilani Sabzalian is one of three Tom and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Education fellowship winners for 2021.

The Williams Fellowship honors those who challenge their students, create inclusive environments, innovate the learning process, and create a collaborative learning experience. The winners receive a $5,000 award and a separate $5,000 is given to support innovative undergraduate learning experiences in the recipient’s department.

Williams fellows embody the spirit of innovation in teaching and learning, but they also represent the collaborative ideal of reaching across disciplines and departments to create change and opportunities for students.

Sabzalian (Alutiiq) is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in Education and the Co-Director of the Sapsik'wałá (Teacher) Education Program at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on creating spaces to support Indigenous students and Indigenous self-determination in public schools, and preparing teachers to challenge colonialism in curriculum, policy, and practice. She is also dedicated to improving Indigenous education in the state of Oregon by serving on the American Indian/Alaska Native State Advisory Committee, and collaborating with the Office of Indian Education on professional development to support the implementation of Tribal History/Shared History, a law that mandates curriculum on tribal history and sovereignty in all K-12 public schools in Oregon.

Dr. Sabzalian's first book, Indigenous Children's Survivance in Public Schools, uses storytelling to document the ways colonialism continues to shape educational policy and practice, and foster educators’ anticolonial literacy and commitment to supporting Indigenous students in public schools. Her latest book, Teaching Critically About Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum, co-authored with Drs. Alison Schmitke and Jeff Edmundson, complicates the Corps of Discovery and promotes students' active and critical engagement with history.

According to the announcement in Around the O,

Sabzalian credits her accomplishments as an assistant professor of indigenous studies in education to support of family, friends and mentors, including Lyllye Reynolds-Parker, a former academic adviser at the UO who helped her on the path to becoming a teacher.

Ever grateful for her own supportive community, Sabzalian is now focused on supporting future teachers, especially future Native teachers who will go on to teach in tribal communities, through UO’s SapsikwalaTeacher Education Program, which she co-directs.

Regardless of who and where her students will teach, Sabzalian’s emphasis in teaching is around decolonizing knowledge through a learning process she describes as transformative, healing and joyful.

“I hope that all of the students I work with recognize that their presence on Indigenous homelands means they have a responsibility to dismantle systems that harm Indigenous peoples and work toward a future in which Indigenous peoples thrive,” Sabzalian said.

Read the full story in Around the O.